Motivational Quotes

Government

I would not give half a guinea to live under one form of government rather than another. It is of no moment to the happiness of an individual.

- Johnson, Samuel

Best Quotes about Government

I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time.

H. L. Mencken

I would not give half a guinea to live under one form of government rather than another. It is of no moment to the happiness of an individual.

Johnson, Samuel

It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.

Voltaire

The government is huge, stupid, greedy and makes nosy, officious and dangerous intrusions into the smallest corners of life -- this much we can stand. But the real problem is that government is boring. We could cure or mitigate the other ills Washington visits on us if we could only bring ourselves to pay attention to Washington itself. But we cannot.

O'Rourke, P. J.

The worst thing in the world next to anarchy, is government.

Beecher, Henry Ward

Not wishing to be disturbed over moral issues of the political economy, Americans cling to the notion that the government is a sort of automatic machine, regulated by the balancing of competing interests.

Mills, C. Wright

Safety of the state is the highest law.

Justinian

Office without pay makes thieves.

Proverb, German

Of all tasks of government the most basic is to protect its citizens against violence.

Dulles, John Foster

10.

It is the duty of government to make it difficult for people to do wrong, easy to do right.

Gladstone, William E.

11.

My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.

Jefferson, Thomas

12.

To govern is to choose. To appear to be unable to choose is to appear to be unable to govern.

Lawson, Nigel

13.

The government is us; we are the government, you and I.

Roosevelt, Theodore

14.

All good government must begin at home.

Haweis, H. R.

15.

Good government is the outcome of private virtue.

Chapman, John Jay

16.

Do not ask what the Government can do for you. Ask why it doesn't.

Kocher, Gerhard

17.

Men are to be guided only by their self-interests. Good government is a good balancing of these; and, except a keen eye and appetite for self-interest, requires no virtue in any quarter. To both parties it is emphatically a machine: to the discontented, a taxing-machine; to the contented, a machine for securing property. Its duties and its faults are not those of a father, but of an active parish-constable.

Carlyle, Thomas

18.

In a healthy nation there is a kind of dramatic balance between the will of the people and the government, which prevents its degeneration into tyranny.

Einstein, Albert

19.

The art of government is the organization of idolatry. The bureaucracy consists of functionaries; the aristocracy, of idols; the democracy, of idolaters. The populace cannot understand the bureaucracy: it can only worship the national idols.

Shaw, George Bernard

20.

An educated people can be easily governed.

Frederick The Great, (Frederick II)

21.

I don't judge a regime by the damning criticism of the opposition, but by the ingenuous praise of the partisan.

Rostand, Jean

22.

There is no nonsense so arrant that it cannot be made the creed of the vast majority by adequate governmental action.

Bertrand Russell

23.

Governing today means giving acceptable signs of credibility. It is like advertising and it is the same effect that is achieved -- commitment to a scenario.

Baudrillard, Jean

24.

Sure there are dishonest men in local government. But there are dishonest men in national government too.

Richard M. Nixon

25.

It is function of government to invent philosophies to explain the demands of its own convenience.

Kempton, Murray

26.

The monarchy is a labor intensive industry.

Wilson, Harold

27.

Governments tend not to solve problems, only to rearrange them.

Reagan, Ronald

28.

Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.

Bastiat, Frederic

29.

So they [the Government] go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all-powerful to be impotent.

Sir Winston Churchill

30.

Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them.

Reagan, Ronald

31.

The supply of government exceeds demand.

Lapham, Lewis H.

32.

You could afford your house without the government if it weren't for the government.

Limbaugh, Rush

33.

The government can destroy wealth but it cannot create wealth, which is the product of labor and management working with creation.

Murray, Bill

34.

What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.

Madison, James

35.

The point to remember is what government gives it must first take away

Caldwell, John S.

36.

Generosity is a part of my character, and I therefore hasten to assure this Government that I will never make an allegation of dishonesty against it wherever a simple explanation of stupidity will suffice.

Lever, Leslie Baron

37.

To administer is to govern: to govern is to reign. That is the essence of the problem.

Mirabeau, Comte De

38.

The whole duty of government is to prevent crime and to preserve contracts.

Melbourne, Lord

39.

There is something to be said for government by a great aristocracy which has furnished leaders to the nation in peace and war for generations; even a democrat like myself must admit this. But there is absolutely nothing to be said for government by a plutocracy, for government by men very powerful in certain lines and gifted with the money touch, but with ideals which in their essence are merely those of so many glorified pawnbrokers.

Roosevelt, Theodore

40.

I love my government not least for the extent to which it leaves me alone.

Updike, John

41.

A government is the only vessel that leaks from the top.

Reston, James

42.

Beaverbrook is so pleased to be in the government that he is like the town tart who finally married the Mayor.

Baxter, Beverley

43.

The auditor is a watchdog and not a bloodhound.